De Beauvoir’s insistence on careful reflection before accepting violence contrasts with many revolutionary movements’ use of violence to shock, scare, and bewilder. Many movements, she suggests, resort to violence precisely because it is gratuitous. On the contrary, for de Beauvoir, only premeditated violence is truly justifiable. Dos Passos’s book demonstrates that violence, beyond only serving as a last resort, is also only appropriate in situations where its prospective benefit is difficult to deny;
certainty is as much a criterion for the legitimacy of violence as is
necessity.